Finding the A on the Keyboard

By Alexander L. Taylor III

A major U.S. firm introduces its executives to high technology

In a windowless room deep in a cinderblock office structure, 15 executives are learning how to use a personal computer. Prodded by two instructors, the pupils thumb through looseleaf training manuals, trying to find the exact combination of letters and numbers that will make the finicky machines do their bidding. There is a certain amount of head scratching and muttering. Complains one frustrated novice: "I run a $300 million division on a daily basis, and I can't find the A on the keyboard."

Such scenes have become familiar around the Hartford, Conn., headquarters complex of United Technologies (Otis elevators, Carrier air conditioners, Sikorsky helicopters). About 1,100 of the executives in the firm, who earn $50,000 a year and up, are scheduled to take three-day courses on personal computers. Upon graduation, each is issued an IBM machine, printer and other accessories, a package worth $4,500, to use in any manner that seems suitable.

United Technologies (1982 sales: $13.6 billion) may be the first giant U.S. industrial corporation to attempt so broad an experiment with personal computers. For many executives around the country, the desktop device is little more than an expensive paperweight. The reason is that they spend much of their time on supervisory or policymaking tasks. They depend on subordinates to perform the kind of data manipulation and word processing that computers do best. So while computers are commonplace at lower corporate levels, they are not routinely used in the executive suite at such companies as Exxon, General Motors and Du Pont.

Aware of these problems, United Technologies deliberately set its goals low. When the program started last December, John Bennett, corporate director of data processing, noted that one of the principal aims of the project was just to acquaint executives with the possibilities of the personal computer. Predicted Bennett: "Only 20% will become day-to-day users. Another 40% will use theirs occasionally, and I suspect the remainder of the computers will drift toward users' homes."

Even the most technically oriented managers found that a lot of practice was required to master the machines. Robert J. Bertini Jr., a controller, took his home "so I could make my mistakes in private." After three weeks of self-training, Bertini now eagerly displays complicated financial projections and claims that his productivity has increased 10%. Stephen Melvin, president of an aircraft-engine manufacturing division, found the U.T. training sessions "humbling, like golf." But he asserts that the computer lets him dig deeper into his division's operations by giving him quick access to records and data.

Many other executives, however, have discovered that the computer is a tool of limited use. Says Horst Pohlmann, a Pratt & Whitney vice president who supervises 2,600 people: "There is no way that I have the time to feed data into that machine. I concluded that my time could be better spent with my people." Arthur Kesten, who installed his computer at home, sometimes communicates with the three big mainframe computers at the U.T. research center where he is an assistant director. But Kesten found that the device is ineffective as a home appliance. Says he: "Balancing a checkbook on a computer is silly."

Even though United Technologies builds jet engines and parts for the space shuttle, it was a late convert to the electronic office. Until five years ago, the company's secretaries did not even have word processors. Near the close of the 1970s, maverick engineers and finance people began bootlegging Apple and Radio Shack PCs (personal computers) into corporate headquarters. Soon more than 100 unofficial desktop machines had appeared. Now the office help works on more than 600 company-bought computers.

When U.T. decided to initiate its executive instruction project, it encountered resistance from some of the highly paid managers. But after Chairman Harry Gray issued a video-taped message saying that the training was a good idea, defenses crumbled. So far, about 310 U.T. officials have graduated from the course. Early company estimates of use have proved optimistic: less than 20% of executives employ their PC daily on the job; about the same number turn to it occasionally; only one manager said he did not want to use the computer at all.

More useful to corporation executives may be the next generation of so-called multifunction work stations. They will include not only computers but telephones and dictating machines that respond to spoken commands. The work stations can be linked with terminals at other stations so that managers can share data and exchange messages. Such a device might even find a customer in United Technologies Chief Gray. So far he is a conspicuous truant from his company's computer experiment. --By Alexander L. Taylor III This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.